Britain's Real Enemy, Not Russia

Britain’s defense minister Gavin Williamson this week said that he will tackle the alleged threat from Russia… by sending warships, submarines and marines to the Arctic.

No kidding. The man in charge of defending Britain, Gavin Williamson, told Bloomberg News that the UK is to urgently adopt Cold War strategy to confront Russia and that forces must be readied.

Defense Secretary Williamson said under his ministerial watch Britain would be redeploying Cold War strategy which had been abandoned more than two decades ago, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

He said warships, attack submarines and helicopters were being made ready to confront an alleged threat posed by Russia to Britain's national security.

"In response to current Russian aggression, the UK has also stepped up training of its Royal Marines in Norway's Arctic," reported Bloomberg. No evidence was cited as to what constituted the alleged Russian aggression. It's all on the say-so of people like Williamson and media stenographers.

Now, one would think that given there are only 100 days to go to Britain's tumultuous divorce from the European Union on March 29, the British minister would have a lot more urgent issues to consider. Apparently not.

Business leaders and assorted commentators, as well as large numbers of the ordinary British public, are deeply alarmed about the possible chaos if Britain crashes out of the EU without any trading arrangement. The so-called "hard Brexit" is looming ever more likely as Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May fails to galvanize support for her withdrawal deal.

There are reports this week of British businesses rushing to form contingency plans in the event of a no-deal Brexit. There are fears of trade and transport disruption causing severe shortages in consumer goods and medicines.

The British cabinet has drawn up plans to deploy some 3,500 troops across the nation in the event of Brexit chaos. What those armed services would be doing precisely is not clear.

But it is reported that Britain's top national security committee, COBRA, is to meet on a daily basis in the countdown to Brexit, presumably to assess the impact on defenses from a disorderly exit from the EU.

With all the concern over social disruption from the impending divorce from Europe, one wonders why Gavin Williamson devoted his time this week to talk about "tackling the threat from Russia" and dispatching warships and troops to the Arctic.

Surely a preposterous lack of priority! But then what should one expect from the 42-year-old boyish-sounding defense minister who has been one year in the job? Before that high-level posting Williamson has had exactly zero experience in military affairs. He neither served in the armed forces, nor had he any government service relating to military or defense matters.

Indeed it is something of a mystery how a former manager of a pottery and china plate factory should six years after becoming a Member of Parliament in 2010 now be the man in charge of Britain's war policy.

Previously, Williamson gained notoriety during the Skripal affair earlier this year when he declared that "Russia should go away and shut up!". For that outburst, Russia's Ministry of Defense spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov ridiculed Williamson's "intellectual poverty".

Despite his dubious intelligence, the former pottery-sales-manager-turned-armchair-general has been running his mouth off about how Russia is allegedly targeting Britain with cyber attacks and other forms of aggression. Williamson has recklessly accused Moscow of plotting to sabotage Britain's undersea cables for communications and its civilian power infrastructure. Again, no evidence is ever presented, merely lurid sensational claims.

Nothing it seems would please Britain's callow defense minister than to start a war with Russia. For him that would be a pinnacle career move even though the country he is supposed to be defending might possibly end up as a heap of radioactive ashes. Imagine him atop the pinnacle with a potty on his head and radioactive ruins below.

This scaremongering, warmongering Russophobia is all about keeping idiots like Williamson in a high-paying job. And no doubt a plush job to follow at some warmongering pro-NATO think-tank.

However, this week's installment involving sending British forces to the Arctic "to defend Britain from Russia" is obviously aimed at the additional purpose of distracting Britons from the Brexit mess that Williamson's government has created.

It truly is mind-numbingly appalling that a time when Britain is seeing record numbers of child poverty and homelessness — which could all be greatly exacerbated by Brexit — you have the man in charge of national defenses talking about sending warships and troops to the Arctic to fight Russia.

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